News of the Day From Across the Globe

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Updated 11:03 pm, Wednesday, January 9, 2013

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1 Trucker strike: Truckers who carry supplies to NATO troops in Afghanistan have gone on strike in northwest Pakistan to protest lower pay, inadequate security and corrupt officials who demand bribes from the truckers, officials said Wednesday. The supply route is an important lifeline for international forces in landlocked Afghanistan. The other land route into Afghanistan through Central Asia and Russia is longer and more expensive.

2 Palestinian talks: President Mahmoud Abbas of the Palestinian Authority met Wednesday in Cairo with Khaled Mashaal, the political chief of Abbas' rival, Hamas, but it was unclear if they were able to overcome any of the differences that have fueled a five-year feud. Since their 2007 split, Abbas' Fatah faction, which dominates in the West Bank, and Hamas, which controls the Gaza Strip, have signed four reconciliation agreements that have failed to come to fruition.

3 Europe's worst drivers: Poland is launching a government program to reduce traffic fatalities and improve its horrible road safety record. In 2011, Poland had Europe's worst road safety statistics, with 110 deaths per 1 million citizens, or almost 4,200 people killed, Interior Minister Jacek Cichocki said Wednesday. Europe's death average from traffic accidents was 60 per million, while Britain is safest with 32. Traffic accidents cost Poland about $6.5 billion in 2012.

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4 Extradition request: Britain is preparing a formal extradition request to Brazil for the jailed former premier of Turks & Caicos Islands, a British Caribbean territory. Michael Misick was detained early last month at an airport in Rio de Janeiro on an international warrant issued by Interpol. British authorities want to question Misick as they investigate criminal allegations of systemic corruption in the islands during his tenure. Misick stepped down as premier in 2009, shortly after Britain took temporary control of the islands' government.

5 Seized ship: An Argentine naval ship detained for more than two months in Ghana because of a billion-dollar international debt dispute returned home to a triumphant welcome Wednesday. Thousands of Argentine government sympathizers traveled to the seaside resort of Mar del Plata to celebrate the return of the ARA Libertad. Ghana courts ordered the ship held on a claim by a Cayman Islands-based hedge fund, which demanded some $350 million for dollar-based Argentine bonds bought at fire-sale prices after Argentina's 2001-02 economic collapse forced a sharp devaluation of its currency. The United Nations' International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea ordered the ship's release last month.

6 Giant squid: Scientists say they have captured video images of a giant squid in its natural habitat for the first time. The 9-foot invertebrate was filmed from a manned submersible in deep waters east of Chichi Island about 600 miles south of Tokyo.

7 Saudi beheading: Rizana Nafeek, a Sri Lankan woman who was employed as a domestic worker in Saudi Arabia, was beheaded on Wednesday after she was accused of murdering an infant in her charge in a case that the Sri Lankan government and human rights groups said was flawed. Though she was arrested in 2005, she did not have access to legal counsel until after a court sentenced her to death in 2007.

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